Articles & Inspiration
Of all the genres and subjects, the topic of Pirates is where you’ll find one of the largest collections of character designs. Due to the popularity of the Pirates theme across movies, TV shows and games targeted at both children and adults, there’s such a diverse range of art styles, from friendly and colourful cartoons to gritty and realistic concepts. In today’s inspiration showcase I present 45 pirate character designs from a variety of artists, featuring stunning artwork across all disciplines, including vector illustrations, digital paintings and 3D modelling.
The role of an artist is to visually depict a subject or scene. Typically this is done by observing and replicating, but artists are given much more creative freedom when working within the realm of fantasy, where we rely on the artist’s impression of a subject’s appearance that doesn’t actually exist in the real world. There are many legendary mythical beasts that we’ve heard descriptions of in stories, but it’s the artist who can bring their imagination to life by sharing their own interpretations as paintings and illustrations. In today’s inspiration showcase I present 45 magnificent art and design pieces featuring fantasy animals and mythical beasts from a range of talented artists.
Corporate identity projects often involve producing print designs across a whole range of stationery products, each with a consistent visual appearance that reflects the overall brand image. It can be difficult presenting your work when all you have is a pile of flat image previews for each individual design file, especially if some items are double-sided prints. Mockup templates allow you to show off your designs as neatly photographed layouts as if they were physical prints fresh from the shop, without the need to compose and shoot the proofs yourself! The result is a stunning presentation of your design work, which is perfect for wooing clients or displaying the work in your portfolio. Check out these 40 mockup templates you can download for free, each featuring a unique layout of stationery items against a variety of backdrops.
I’ve wanted to produce an inspiration showcase post based on this photo effect since I first discovered it over a year ago. Typically my roundups feature works of a certain style or trend from a range of artists, but with this particular subject I found that every example I came across was made by the same person! As a result, this post is dedicated to the talented Aydın Büyüktaş, who pioneered the Flatland drone photography technique that produces breathtaking imagery reminiscent of the mind-bending scenes from the movie Inception. Aydin’s portfolio seems to be an exclusive source of examples of this photo style, but I did also discover some great tutorials that explain how to create these amazing photos using a drone. Admire these surreal landscape photographs, then follow the featured guides to experiment with the effect yourself.
Skulls have been used for artistic decoration right from early primitive civilisations. Whether they’re used to embellish your battle gear or the latest heavy metal album cover design, skulls are a symbol of death and evil that makes them the perfect imagery for certain aesthetics. In today’s design inspiration showcase I present 40 magnificently morbid art and illustration pieces featuring skulls, ranging from dark and distressing depictions with a horror theme to bright and colourful creations with more of a witty vibe.
I’ve featured the style of single-weight line art illustrations on Spoon Graphics a few times over the years. The first showcase was back in 2015, followed by a couple of tutorials showing how to create line art illustrations yourself using Adobe Illustrator. My latest tutorial on the topic a couple of weeks ago prompted me to check out how the trend has developed, so I’ve been busy putting together a fresh showcase of vector line art illustrations from a range of talented artists. See how detailed illustrations, patterns and shapes can be created using only stroked paths.
